An accomplished International Jurist, Teacher, Author and Administrator, Honourable Judge (Dr.) Chile Eboe-Osuji was born in Añara, Isiala Mbano, Imo State, Nigeria, on September 2, 1962. Among other academic and professional qualifications, he holds the LL.B, LL.M and Ph.D. degrees from Universities of Calabar, Nigeria, McGill, Canada and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, respectively. An honorary Doctor of letters by the University of Middlesex, London, England. He was variously called to the Nigerian Bar and to the Bar in Ontario and British Columbia in Canada.
Dr. Chile Eboe-Osuji was a Judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for nine (9) years and the first Nigerian to serve as an ICC judge.
In 2018, he was elevated to the position of (4th) President of the Court by his fellow judges – a trust he managed commendably over a 3-year tenure. The first African to hold the post, he presided over an 18-Judge Court undeterred in their collective determination to discharge the mandate of humanity, despite serious political attacks directed at the Court by a most powerful government. With the unalloyed support of his colleagues, his leadership ensured that “the ICC became the principal pillar of the international rule of law; a key tool in the pursuit of international peace and the protection of humankind from unspeakable acts of inhumanity”.
Highlights of his tenure at the helm of the ICC include: development of international law which made it clear that international law does not recognize immunity for heads of state accused of international crimes before an international court; judgments that underscored the importance of the ICC as a court of fair proceedings where everyone including accused persons would receive justice; a holistic systems review — the first of such an exercise in the Court’s history – to strengthen the ICC as an institution and maintain its independence as the cornerstone of its legitimacy.
Prior to his appointment as a Judge of the ICC, Chile Eboe-Osuji had a brilliant career in legal practice and related assignments. As a Barrister, he appeared before trial courts in Nigeria and Canada as well as conducted appeals before the Court of Appeal for Ontario (Canada) and the Supreme Court of Canada.
At the international level, he was also Legal Expert to Nigeria’s delegation to the ICC-ASP Special Working Group on the Definition of the Crime of Aggression.
He served as Legal Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights — anchoring the High Commissioner’s interventions in cases involving human rights issues and leading the writing of amicus curiae submissions to the European Court of Human Rights and the United States Supreme Court. At various times, he also served as a Senior Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
As a legal scholar, Judge Eboe-Osuji is currently the Distinguished International Jurist at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at the Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada (and the Special Advisor to the President of the University); as well as the Paul Martin Senior Professor of Political Science, International Relations and Law, at the University of Windsor, Canada; and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law. He has also held academic appointments as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law at the Stanford University Law School; Senior Fellow at the Carr Center of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and an Adjunct Professor of International Criminal Law at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
He has an extensive record of legal scholarship and publications, including the celebrated book International Law and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts; as well as Protecting Humanity (ed.). He is the Editor-in-Chief of both the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law; and of the Canadian Review of International Law and Policy.
Judge Dr. Chile Eboe-Osuji is the first official (incumbent or retired) from ICC to receive the prestigious Goler T Butcher Medal from the American Society of International Law.
Ladies & Gentlemen, we proudly invite His Excellency, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji to receive the “Hallmarks of Labour-Emeka Anyaoku Life-Time Achievement Award to Nigeria’s Outstanding International Icon”.
Congratulations Sir!